HTC and Nokia set for patent wars

HTC can't seem to catch a break. Having only recently just settled with Apple over patent disputes, the Taiwanese company is preparing to battle Nokia over 32 different issues around the globe. The patent allegations range from syncing databases within a time to solutions with antennae design. If you're interested in the whole list of complaints, head over here.

The question is whether HTC should fight all these allegations or pursue a cross-licensing deal with Nokia. Florian Mueller, an industry patent watcher, comments that he thinks the wise move for HTC would be to avoid the costly legal battle and license the technology. He states

"I believe in a Nokia-HTC license deal for two reasons. One, Nokia has some really powerful non-standard-essential patents. Its SEPs are broadly licensed, but its non-SEPs account for almost 90% of its portfolio of 10,000 patent families and companies like HTC still need to license it. Two, HTC has proven in the past that it's not interested in endless court fights but quite willing to pay royalties to patent holders."

The first set in Germany will take place before the end of this month. It would be a huge win for struggling Nokia if it either wins these lawsuits or enters a licensing deal with HTC. For HTC the silver lining can really only come from licensing with Nokia so that it can focus it's energy on adding more quality handsets to it's portfolio, like the 8X. We'll learn more over the coming weeks and months about the outcome and possible ramifications for Windows Phone.

Reader comments

HTC and Nokia set for patent wars

For HTC the silver lining can really only come from licensing with Nokia so that it can focus it's energy on adding more quality handsets to it's portfolio, like the 8X.

#corrections
Either way this plays out, I'm hoping that both companies survive and thrive under the Windows Phone brand. Microsoft needs both of them to really bring Windows Phone to battle with Android and iPhone.

Ouch. Talk about kicking someone while they're down. 1st, they gotta pay royalties to MS for each Android device.. then they gotta pay up to Apple.. and now Nokia? It's like 19th century China: everyone's trying to get a piece.

Nokia should discount them any license when it comes to windows phones and full price for Android. WP needs the push and if HTC starts putting out some good devices, it will only help the brand, plus I want to see a reboot of the touchpro 2 with a 4.5" screen.

You do know they hold by far the most expensive patent portfolio in the industry? They use 9th most money to R&D in the world at 4 billion euros a year. Motorola is peanuts there compared to Nokia.
Apple pays for every iPhone to Nokia, everybody pays. Nokia owns majority of essential WiFi, GSM, LTE patents in the world. Nokia invented GSM, txt messages, build in ceramic antenna's, most of the wireless protocols and builds much of the networks in the world (NSN). Check Google for some information there.

Nokia has cross licensing deals with every of the big manufacturer. HTC just hasn't pend to Nokia's terms so they will go to court about the cost of licensing Nokia patents.

easy. They spend too much money. Last quarter alone total revenue of 9.2 billion dollars. That's a lot (microsofts revenue last quarter 17.4 billion ). They used around 10 billion dollars that quarter so they posted a loss. They're still trimming the fat from moving from Symbian to Windows. But they still spend money on R&D like no other. That's why you get such an innovative device in the Lumia 920 and a rich patent portfolio. In my opinion, I think Nokia is too in love with their R&D lol.
If Nokia decided right now to stop making smartphones, their stock would surge up. Reason being is that the 4 out of 5 of their business is very profitable and has good growth. Just the 1 smartphone division is losing a lot of money. But where is the fun in that, you want to invest where the money is at which is in smartphones :).
If windows phone gains traction, nokia stock will multiply. The reason the stock is so low is because "the street" (wallstreet) has absolutely no clue how windows phone will do. There's a lot of uncertainty and it's easy to cause fear and manipulate the stock downward using this fear. They had no clue on the iphone 5 numbers either and the Apple stock tumbled. Android is no longer a free ride. You'll start seeing a lot more companies release windows phones now.

@unstoppablekem. Forgive him if you don't live in the States but if you do then I would conclude you have been living under a rock for refusing to know the mighty OSU. The BUCKEYE NATION rocks. Maybe I should invite you to Columbus to enjoy a Red Army jamboree.

HTC has enough of WP. Samsung see this and also suits WP. WP has no choice left besides for yesterdays Nokia 810 and 822 and if anybody wants a hero WP will have to switch to ATT. The Nokia fanboys are happy and consumers all migrate to Android and iPhone. MS looses significantly in WP devision. Thus the birth of "The Surface phone RT and pro". Nokia soon dies off.

There isnt a single competitor that doesnt use nokia's cell patents in their phones. All of them pay nokia royalties. Nokia portfolio of patents is the largest in the world of any phone company in the mobile business.

Apple, Samsung, HTC , Google etc would not be where they are if it wasnt for Nokia.

Id like Nokia to use that patent money to cover the losses by distributing to everyone but AT&T and Rogers if those two won't carry the Lumia 940 (or whatever the next version will be called) without exclusivity deals. I bet Nokia would sell more phones in North America that way.

Is there any particular reason why you show two Windows phones in an alleged article about patent disputes that have nothing to do with Windows Phones? This is about HTC and Nokia's patents not about either company's Windows phones. The photo has about as much relationship to the case as a photo of a Samsung laptop and Apple MacBook would have to that case.

That's a childish thing to say. Both companies bring very nice things to the table and give us choices for our Windows Phones. Nokia put WP back on the map after HTC and Samsung effectively ditched it for Android and now HTC is, thankfully, back in the game for WP. These are good things and hopefully they will get their differences resolved and focus on their phones.

It seems, that many (even the writer of the article) don't have any idea, why Nokia went to court with HTC. To be clear, it didn't happen recently. These legal proceedings takes years. And, as Swyost already mentioned, this has nothing to do with Windows phones. I don't know, why WPCentral (or others) haven't posted an article about this when these things started. The timing feels a bit odd now, almost purposeful.

Nokia is known as a very fair player in the field of IPR. They are willing to cross license their patent portfolio with very fair terms. Too bad, that even if Nokia tried to make a "peaceful" settlement with HTC for years, they refused to sign up. Nokia couldn't do anything but go to court with HTC. As they have done with many others, who were not not willing to agree, that they are hurting Nokia's IPR. (Apple vs. Nokia is probably the most recent famous one, resulting Apple paying to Nokia from every iDevice they are able to sell)

Again, Nokia is not the bad guy here. HTC and other similar players are the "outlaws". Imagine yourself in a situation, where you have invested years and years of work into your breakthrough technology, and billions and billions of dollars. When you are finally finished, and get your product ready, your neighbor steals all your ideas and starts to produce a similar product, without paying you a cent. Would you feel sorry for your neighbor? "Poor fellow, I don't want him to pay me anything for my work even if I just spent billions of dollars to make this happen"? I don't think so.

I really hope, that Nokia wins this case with undisputed results, as it is not only a win for justice, not only a win for Nokia, but it is a lose for Android. This would show for the first time, clearly, that Android is based on stealing other companies' work. You should be happy about this.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt that too many people are commenting, without knowing anything.

LOL. Android is perfectly fine, Samsung, Microsoft, and Nokia get along just fine.
Don't tell me you fell for that Apple claiming prior art as their own garbage and actually think that Apple invented everything?
Hating Android for their success is perfectly fine but accusing them of copying is laughable.

That would have to be because of the customization done to the Android, so even if the core is the same in Android it does not mean its the same OS, things like TouchWiz etc. matter at this area. And thats not exactly true Microsoft is in court with Motorola and Google owns Motorola so isnt that kind of like beign in court with Google?

As far as I can remember Motorola and Nokia were few of the first who did a cross-licencing agreement and this happened in like -98? Then came Samsung and others followed. Most of the time Nokia has done the cross-licencing with very reasonable terms, that actually has something to do with the fact that you cant connect into a GSM network unless you use Nokias patents and few other similar situations. But of course Nokia wants to protect its patents, its the only one in the industry who actually spends a lot into the R&D and most of the time when something really jaw-breaking is invented its done by Nokia. Few examples to cover my last statement: SMS, GMS, TouchScreen (Well actually colored touchscreen, IBM did this in mid 80's while Nokia patented its touchscreen patents at 2000-2002), Many aspects of 3G and 4G/LTE.

This case between Nokia and HTC has nothing to do with Windows Phone, infact it has very little to do with Android there were few patents which concern Android but most of them were hardware and signal reception solution patents, these are the kind patents Nokia uses against others when it wants the fastest possible solution to the issue, they want a cross-licencing agreement and they want theyr royalties, this is a measure to force HTC into that solution.

Partly because of the customization done to the Android OS and also because, if I recall properly, Google uses a loophole where, because their OS is free, they technically aren't making money off of Android. Of course you and I know that they make it by gathering peoples info and selling it to every Tom, Dick, and Harry but that doesn't translate on paper into making money off of the OS. Not just that but the companies using Android do a lot of the actual stealing too. Unfortunately, when they get caught Google just says their usual "we will continue to push for innovation" spiel without doing a thing to help their partners or trying to find a way to license the needed patents to cover the companies who are making them money.

LOL. Who the hell runs HTC? How the hell did they decide that paying Apple for prior art and rounded rectangles took priority over this? You can fight Apple because they just have bull crap but this should have just been signed, like everyone else did.